These sample scans are from the original record. You will get scans of the full pages or articles where the surname you searched for has been found.

Your web browser may prevent the sample windows from opening; in this case please change your browser settings to allow pop-up windows from this site.

Suffolk householders
(1674)Hearth tax was raised by assessing each householder on the number of chimneys to the dwelling. This provided a simple way to make a rough judgment as to the value of the dwelling: paupers were issued exemption certificates, but they too were listed at the end of each return. The returns were made by township, grouped by hundred. A complete copy of the hearth tax return for each shire was sent to the Exchequer: this is the return for Suffolk for Lady Day (25 March) 1674 (E 179/257/14) as printed in 1905 as Suffolk Green Book no xi, vol. 13. The numbers given are the numbers of hearths: where two or more people are grouped together with one number, it may be assumed that they were heads of separate households sharing a single building with that number of chimneys.

BAWTON. Cost: £6.00.

Sample scan, click to enlarge

Masters of apprentices registered at Bridgwater in Somerset
(1759)Apprenticeship indentures and clerks' articles were subject to a 6d or 12d per pound stamp duty: the registers of the payments usually give the master's trade, address, and occupation, and the apprentice's name, as well as details of the date and length of the apprenticeship. There are central registers for collections of the stamp duty in London, as well as returns from collectors in the provinces. These collectors generally received duty just from their own county, but sometimes from further afield. The indentures themselves can date from a year or two earlier than this return. (The sample entry shown on this scan is taken from a Bristol return. Each entry has two scans, the other being the facing page with the details of the indenture, length of service, and payment of duty.) IR 1/53